Henderson's Highlights (and low points...) January 2012

Thought for the month

On Holocaust Memorial Day (27th January): “We must not let this happen again”.

Parliamentary highlights
Generally a lack of Government generated parliamentary business this month, although still lots to do, including meetings and discussions with ministers including David Mundell (Scottish Referendum), Mike Penning (Richard Montgomery), Theresa May (Elected Police Commissioners) Nick Herbert (Policing) and Mark Prisk (Thamesteel).

I was also busy in my role as a member of the panel that has been undertaking an inquiry into stalking. After a lot of hard work (including extensive brain numbing proof reading over the Christmas recess) the Panel agreed the final version of the report on January 25th.

I welcomed a number of individuals and groups to the Commons this month, including Connor Pavitt, Jack Ithell, Bernie and Chris Sketchley, The Rotary Club of the Isle of Sheppey, Westlands Academy, Rodmersham Primary School and Holywell Primary School, from Upchurch. The latter two groups took part in the Parliamentary Educational Scheme that not only involves a tour of Parliament, but also mock elections, followed by a Q&A session with their MP. A real highlight for me, not sure about the children!

Debating question
With all the fuss being made about executive pay, why haven’t there been any complaints about the vast sums of money earned by sportsmen, film stars and pop stars? Surely business executives contribute more to Britain’s economic well being? I would welcome your thoughts.

Constituency highlights
I am really proud of my constituency and this month sent out to parliamentary colleagues, including every member of the Cabinet, copies of the excellent DVD produced by Sheppey Matters highlighting the hidden treasures on The Isle of Sheppey.

My favourite day of the week is Fridays when I get the chance to get out and about in my wonderful constituency. This month, in addition to my regular monthly business breakfast meeting, I visited a number of local businesses including: Carousel Logistics, Wire Belt (where I was presented with a model conveyor made by apprentices), Go Response and Carillion Training. I also visited Sheerness County Youth Club to discuss its imminent closure. We have a plan!

The big highlight was joining a delegation from Swale Borough Council and Kent County Council on a visit to the Vestas’ wind turbine factories in Denmark. It was a long day but worthwhile in that we left with a better understanding of the complications involved with bringing a factory to Sheppey and got a better feel for Vestas’ intentions. They are obviously committed to the Sheerness Project, subject to obtaining orders for their 7 megawatt turbines. We shall see.

Social highlights
One of the nice things about being MP is having the opportunity to support local groups. One such group is the Sheppey Sunday League, who this month invited me to their Sponsors Dinner. It was a good evening.

Cultural highlights
I enjoyed Sherlock Holmes, Masterchef and the return of Hustle on TV; and reading the latest Stephen King novel 11/23/63.

Sporting highlights
I was proud to hear that Sittingbourne and Sheppey have two representatives at this year’s London Paralympics. 17-year old Ross Wilson from the Isle of Sheppey was selected for the GB Table Tennis Squad and Steve Brown from Sittingbourne has been selected as GB Wheelchair Rugby Captain. I’ll be following their progress and wish them the best of luck!

Outside of the constituency, sporting highlights were in short supply this month, with England batting disastrously to lose the test series against Pakistan, including an abysmal 77 all out in the second innings of the second test. Football wasn’t much better; January started off well for Gillingham with a spirited FA Cup game against Premier side Stoke City. The Gills lost, but were not disgraced. Unfortunately, this game was followed by three straight defeats in the league, including two by a 3-4 score line. That’s Gillingham all over!

Personal highlights
January 27th was my birthday. I received lots of great pressies, but the one I will use most is likely to be the Litter Angels mug that was one of the gifts from my staff. In the evening, my daughter Jo-Anne treated Louise and me to a meal at my favourite Chinese restaurant, Charlie Lam’s Dragon Palace in Halfway. Our celebrations were somewhat muted by news that Thamesteel went into administration with the loss of hundreds of jobs (see low points below).

Low points
The Isle of Sheppey is a close knit community and we were hit hard by news that Thamesteel was to go into administration. 350 workers were made redundant, with only 59 being retained to look after the mothballed site until somebody is found to take over the site. I immediately contacted the Ministry of Business Innovation and Skills to see what the Government could do to help.

The Minister for Business, Mark Prisk, assured me that the Government was monitoring the situation carefully and would do whatever it could to help the Administrators find somebody to take over the site.

The priority for my staff and me was to work with the Community Union, the Administrator and the Government to ensure that those workers who had not been paid for this month’s work were able to recover from the Government’s National Insurance Fund at least some of the wages they were owed (capped at £430 per week) and any statutory redundancy pay to which they were entitled.

Once we have sorted out payments to the redundancy workers we will concentrate our efforts on helping those workers to find alternative employment and help the administrators identify somebody suitable to take over the plant.

Of course, nobody knows how many workers any new owner will employ, nor whether the skilled workers will still be available to work at the mill. All I can say that we will bend every sinew to help Sheppey recover from this blow.